Flexible display apparatus
Patent 8115886 Issued on February 14, 2012. Estimated Expiration Date: 
July 25, 2028. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
July 25, 2028. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.Patent ReferencesKey signal entering device for thin electronic apparatus Assembly including a modular electrical circuit and connector Liquid crystal display with an electrode connector Device having a mounting structure for holding a vibrator Robust modular electronic device without direct electrical connections for inter-module communication or control Flexible display device Patent #: 7359215 InventorsAssigneeApplicationNo. 12180357 filed on 07/25/2008US Classes:349/58Holder, support, frame, or housingExaminersPrimary: Wong, EricAttorney, Agent or FirmForeign Patent References
International ClassG02F 1/1333DescriptionBACKGROUND1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to a display apparatus, and more particularly to a flexible display apparatus. 2. Description of the Prior Art With the progress of the flat panel display technique, more and more electrical products, especially portable electrical products, such as mobile phones, e-books, digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDA), etc., are respectivelyequipped with a display apparatus. The development trend of the portable electrical product is achieving light weight and thin thickness, so the display apparatus for the portable electrical product should have features of light weight and thin thickness. The flexible display apparatus, such as the flexible electrophoretic display (EPD) and the flexible liquid crystal display (LCD) etc., not only has features of light weight and thin thickness, but also has features of flexibility and hard to bebroken. Therefore, the development of the flexible display apparatus has become increasingly important. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional flexible display apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional flexible display apparatus 100 includes a flexible display panel 110 and a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) 120. The flexibledisplay panel 110 includes a display body 112 and a peripheral circuit 114. The peripheral circuit 114 is adjacent to the display body 112, and the FPCB 120 is connected to the peripheral circuit 114. The FPCB 120 has a connection interface 122 forconnecting to an outside circuit (not shown), and the display body 112 is connected to the outside circuit via the peripheral circuit 114 and the FPCB 120. In the conventional technique, the FPCB 120 may be pulled or flexed when connecting the FPCB 120 with the outside circuit. This easily causes different kinds of damages (e.g. electrical damage and structure damage) between the FPCB 120 and theperipheral circuit 114, and reliability of the flexible display apparatus 100 is therefore reduced. BRIEF SUMMARY The present invention provides a flexible display apparatus having better reliability. The present invention further provides a flexible display apparatus to improve reliability. In order to achieve the above-mentioned advantages, a flexible display apparatus is provided. The flexible display apparatus comprises a flexible display panel and a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB). The flexible display panel comprises adisplay body and a peripheral circuit. The peripheral circuit is adjacent to the display body, and the FPCB is connected to the peripheral circuit. The FPCB comprises a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion is connected betweenthe peripheral circuit and the second portion. Bending modulus of the first portion is smaller than that of the second portion. In an embodiment of the present invention, a thickness of the first portion is smaller than that of the second portion. In an embodiment of the present invention, the thickness of the first portion is between 0.03 mm and 0.1 mm, and the thickness of the second portion is between 0.1 mm and 0.15 mm. In an embodiment of the present invention, the first portion has two short sides connected between the second portion and the peripheral circuit, wherein a length of each of the short sides is greater than 5 millimeters. In an embodiment of the present invention, the flexible display apparatus further comprises a frame assembly. The frame assembly comprises a first frame and a second frame, wherein the first frame is for carrying the flexible display panel, andthe second frame is assembled with the first frame to cover the peripheral circuit and expose the display body. In an embodiment of the present invention, the FPCB has a locating hole, and the frame assembly has a locating unit for passing through the locating hole. In an embodiment of the present invention, the locating unit comprises a fixed pin and a fixed hole, the fixed pin is for passing through the locating hole and fixed in the fixed hole. One of the fixed pin and the fixed hole is disposed at thefirst frame, and the other one of the fixed pin and the fixed hole is disposed at the second frame. In an embodiment of the present invention, the locating hole is disposed at the first portion. In an embodiment of the present invention, the flexible display panel comprises a flexible electrophoretic display panel or a flexible liquid crystal display panel. In order to achieve the above-mentioned advantages, another flexible display apparatus is provided. The flexible display apparatus comprises a flexible display panel, an FPCB and a frame assembly. The flexible display panel comprises a displaybody and a peripheral circuit, wherein the peripheral circuit is adjacent to the display body. The FPCB is connected to the peripheral circuit and has a locating hole. The frame assembly comprises a first frame and a second frame. The first frame isfor carrying the flexible display panel, and the second frame is assembled with the first frame to cover the peripheral circuit and expose the display body. Moreover, the frame assembly has a locating unit for passing through the locating hole. In an embodiment of the present invention, the locating unit comprises a fixed pin and a fixed hole. The fixed pin is for passing through the locating hole and fixed in the fixed hole. One of the fixed pin and the fixed hole is disposed at thefirst frame, and the other one of the fixed pin and the fixed hole is disposed at the second frame. In an embodiment of the present invention, the flexible display panel comprises a flexible electrophoretic display panel or a flexible liquid crystal display panel In the first type of the flexible display apparatus of the present invention, because the bending modulus of the first portion is smaller, influence of the FPCB on the flexible display panel can be separated when the FPCB and the flexibledisplay panel are pulled with each other. Therefore, damages between the FPCB and the flexible display panel can be prevented. Moreover, in the second type of the flexible display apparatus of the present invention, the FPCB has the locating hole andthe frame assembly has the locating unit passing through the locating hole that prevent the FPCB and the flexible display panel from being pulled with each other. Therefore, the two kinds of the flexible display apparatuses of the present invention havebetter reliability. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other features and advantages of the various embodiments disclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the following description and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout, and in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional flexible display apparatus. FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a flexible display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic three-dimensional view of an FPCB according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a schematic view of a flexible display apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4B is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 4A. FIG. 5A is a schematic view of a flexible display apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5B is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 5A. DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a flexible display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the flexible display apparatus 200 of the present embodiment comprises a flexible display panel 210 and aflexible printed circuit board (FPCB) 220. The flexible display panel 210 comprises a display body 212 and a peripheral circuit 214. The peripheral circuit 214 is adjacent to the display body 212, and the FPCB 220 is connected to the peripheral circuit214. The FPCB 220 comprises a first portion 222 and a second portion 224, wherein the first portion 222 is connected between the peripheral circuit 214 and the second portion 224. Bending modulus of the first portion 222 is smaller than that of thesecond portion 224. In the flexible display apparatus 200, the flexible display panel 210 can be, but not limited to, a flexible electrophoretic display panel or a flexible liquid crystal display panel. The peripheral circuit 214 can comprise a plurality ofelectrical elements 214a, such as driver integrated circuit, etc. Furthermore, the second portion 224 of the FPCB 220 has a connection interface 224a, and the connection interface 224a is for connecting to an outside circuit (not shown). The displaybody 212 is electrically connected to the outside circuit via the peripheral circuit 214 and the FPCB 220. The FPCB 220 of the present embodiment comprises the first portion 222 and the second portion 224, wherein the bending modulus of the first portion 222 is smaller than that of the second portion 224. When connecting the FPCB 220 with theoutside circuit, the second portion 224 of the FPCB 220 may be pulled or flexed and then the FPCB 220 and the peripheral circuit 214 may be pulled with each other. However, because of the bending modulus of the first portion 222 of the FPCB 220 beingsmaller, bending strain of the first portion 222 is greater than that of the second portion 224. Therefore, the first portion 222 can be used to be a stress buffer to reduce the pull force between the FPCB 220 and the peripheral circuit 214. Thus,damages (e.g. electrical damage and structure damage) between the FPCB 220 and the peripheral circuit 214 caused by pulling the FPCB 220 and the peripheral circuit 214 can be prevented, and reliability of the flexible display apparatus 200 is thereforeimproved. Moreover, the first portion 222 of the FPCB 220 has two short sides 222a connected between the second portion 224 and the peripheral circuit 214. To let the first portion 222 of the FPCB 220 be sufficiently used to be the stress buffer, alength of each of the short sides 222a may be greater than 5 millimeters. In the present embodiment, a difference of material or structure between the first portion 222 and the second portion 224 may result in the bending modulus of the first portion 222 and the second portion 224 being different. The difference ofstructure between the first portion 222 and the second portion 224 will be detailed described below. FIG. 3 is a schematic three-dimensional view of an FPCB according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, a thickness of thefirst portion 222 of the FPCB 220 is different from a thickness of the second portion 224 of the FPCB 220. More specifically, the thickness of the first portion 222 is smaller than that of the second portion 224, and therefore the bending modulus of thefirst portion 222 is smaller than that of the second portion 224. In an embodiment, the thickness of the first portion 222 is, for example, between 0.03 mm and 0.1 mm, and the thickness of the second portion 224 is, for example, between 0.1 mm and 0.15mm. FIG. 4A is a schematic view of a flexible display apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4B is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 4A. Referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B, comparing with the flexible displayapparatus 200 of FIG. 2, the flexible display apparatus 200' of the present embodiment further comprises a frame assembly 230. The frame assembly 230 comprises a first frame 232 and a second frame 234. The first frame 232 is for carrying the flexibledisplay panel 210, and the second frame 234 is assembled with the first frame 232 to cover the peripheral circuit 214 and expose the display body 212. Furthermore, comparing with the FPCB 220 of the flexible display apparatus 200 of FIG. 2, the FPCB 220' of the flexible display apparatus 200' of the present embodiment further has a locating hole 226. The locating hole 226 is, for example,disposed at the first portion 222 of the FPCB 220. The frame assembly 230 has a locating unit 236 for passing through the locating hole 226. More specifically, the locating unit 236 comprises a fixed pin 236a and a fixed hole 236b, wherein the fixedpin 236a is disposed at the second frame 234 and the fixed hole 236b is disposed at the first frame 232. The fixed pin 236a is for passing through the locating hole 226 and fixed in the fixed hole 236b. In the present embodiment, because the locating unit 236 of the frame assembly 230 is passing through the locating hole 226 of the FPCB 220', the locating unit 236 can prevent a connection portion between the FPCB 220' and the peripheral circuit214 of the flexible display panel 210 from being pulled when the FPCB 220' being pulled or flexed. Therefore, damages (e.g. electrical damage and structure damage) between the FPCB 220' and the peripheral circuit 214 caused by pulling the FPCB 220' andthe peripheral circuit 214 can be effectively prevented, and the reliability of the flexible display apparatus 200' of the present embodiment can be further improved. It should be noted that although in FIG. 4, the fixed pin 236a is disposed at the second frame 234 and the fixed hole 236b is disposed at the first frame 232, positions of the fixed pin 236a and the fixed hole 236b can be exchanged. In otherwords, the fixed pin 236a can be disposed at the first frame 232 and the fixed hole 236b can be disposed at the second frame 234. FIG. 5A is a schematic view of a flexible display apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5B is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 5A. Referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B, the flexible display apparatus 200'' ofthe present embodiment is similar to the flexible display apparatus 200' of FIGS. 4A and 4B, and the only difference between the flexible display apparatus 200'' and the flexible display apparatus 200' is the FPCB. More specifically, the FPCB 220'' ofthe flexible display apparatus 200'' does not comprise two portions. In other words, in the flexible display apparatus 200'' of the present embodiment, the locating unit 236 of the frame assembly 230 is used to prevent the connection portion between theFPCB 220'' and the peripheral circuit 214 of the flexible display panel 210 from being pulled. Therefore, damages (e.g. electrical damage and structure damage) between the FPCB 220'' and the peripheral circuit 214 caused by pulling the FPCB 220'' andthe peripheral circuit 214 can be prevented, and reliability of the flexible display apparatus 200'' of the present embodiment can be improved In summary, the present invention can achieve at least the following advantages. 1. In an embodiment of the present invention, because the bending modulus of the first portion of the FPCB is smaller, the first portion can be used to be the stress buffer to prevent damages caused by the pull force between the FPCB and theperipheral circuit, and the reliability of the flexible display apparatus is consequently improved. 2. In another embodiment of the present invention, the FPCB has the locating hole and the frame assembly has the locating unit passing through the locating hole that prevent the FPCB and the flexible display panel from being pulled with eachother, and therefore the reliability of the flexible display apparatus is improved. The above description is given by way of example, and not limitation. Given the above disclosure, one skilled in the art could devise variations that are within the scope and spirit of the invention disclosed herein, including configurationsways of the recessed portions and materials and/or designs of the attaching structures. Further, the various features of the embodiments disclosed herein can be used alone, or in varying combinations with each other and are not intended to be limited tothe specific combination described herein. Thus, the scope of the claims is not to be limited by the illustrated embodiments. Other References
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